Spotlight On: Chad Meadows, Executive Vice President & COO, Vystar Credit Union
September 2024 — Chad Meadows, executive vice president and COO of VyStar Credit Union, told Invest: in an interview that the market in Jacksonville continues to grow more diverse, leading to a fruitful time for VyStar and the financial services industry as a whole. “Our passion stands for Jacksonville and the opportunity and the growth that’s happening here. We’ve really helped spearhead that, especially in downtown Jacksonville,” he said.
What have been the overall contributions or impact of VyStar Credit Union in Jacksonville over the past year?
VyStar Credit Union was founded onboard Naval Air Station Jacksonville, which is one of the largest military bases in the East. We’ve been Jacksonville’s home-based credit union since 1952. When you look at the last year and the years before, we’ve always been focused on giving back to the community. Our passion is deeply rooted in Jacksonville, embracing the opportunities and growth unfolding here. We’ve been instrumental in driving this progress, particularly in downtown Jacksonville.
In the last year, in general – and I don’t think it’s just isolated within the financial industry – the sector has faced a lot of challenges. There’s been a lot of economic factors in our area that have been impactful, whether it’s rate increases, consumer deposits, or credit quality. That has all changed over the last couple of years. Throughout it all, we’ve stayed true to ourselves, consistently focusing on the things that we do well. We’ve continued to grow and invest and get back to our communities during this time. Just over the last year, we’ve opened eight new branches. We’re also completing a merger with another local credit union. You bring those together and it demonstrates significant growth, continued focus, and continued contribution to the city of Jacksonville. It will also bring us to about 985,000 members and about 60,000 small-business members. We’ve continued to remain a strong financial institution. We’ve continued to focus on our roots and what got us here: it’s giving back to the communities and giving back to the people who have invested in us as an organization.
[fusion_images order_by=”desc” picture_size=”auto” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”yes” autoplay_speed=”3000″ flex_align_items=”center” columns=”1″ column_spacing=”0″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”no” lightbox=”no” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” caption_style=”off” caption_title_tag=”2″ fusion_font_family_caption_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_caption_title_font=”” caption_title_size=”” caption_title_line_height=”” caption_title_letter_spacing=”” caption_title_transform=”” caption_title_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” caption_background_color=”” fusion_font_family_caption_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_caption_text_font=”” caption_text_size=”” caption_text_line_height=”” caption_text_letter_spacing=”” caption_text_transform=”” caption_text_color=”” caption_border_color=”” caption_overlay_color=”” caption_align_medium=”none” caption_align_small=”none” caption_align=”none” caption_margin_top=”” caption_margin_right=”” caption_margin_bottom=”” caption_margin_left=”” parent_dynamic_content=””] [fusion_image image=”https://capitalanalyticsassociates.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CAA24_Invest-Insights-S6-Web-Banners-7.jpg” image_id=”64377″ image_title=”” image_caption=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” alt=”” /] [fusion_image image=”https://capitalanalyticsassociates.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CAA24_Invest-Insights-S6-Web-Banners-10.jpg” image_id=”64380″ image_title=”” image_caption=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” alt=”” /] [fusion_image image=”https://capitalanalyticsassociates.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CAA24_Invest-Insights-S6-Web-Banners-9.jpg” image_id=”64379″ image_title=”” image_caption=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” alt=”” /] [fusion_image image=”https://capitalanalyticsassociates.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/CAA24_Invest-Insights-S6-Web-Banners-8.jpg” image_id=”64378″ image_title=”” image_caption=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” alt=”” /] [/fusion_images]
What are the greatest challenges, not just for VyStar Credit Union, but also for the banking and financial services sector in Jacksonville as a whole?
We’ve seen a lot of economic challenges, including in our members’ expectations, over the last couple of years. Prices have increased, which has put a constraint on people’s pocketbooks. Then you have the technological impacts. You saw what happened with CrowdStrike and the impact that it had on a global scale. That’s something that, as a financial institution, we focus on every day: the technology, the security, and making sure that we have the things that our members need, where they need them, when they need them.
I think above and beyond that, there’s a lot to be said for the simple facts of talent management, hiring and retaining strong employees. I know for us and for our peers, it’s a much more competitive landscape. One of the things we focus on is making sure that we continue to be able to not only retain our strong employees but that we are also competitive in the hiring process. That means looking in different places than we did before. We look a little bit more geographically in the Southeast, whether it’s the Carolinas or Georgia. It’s not just necessarily in Florida anymore.
As the competition has ramped up, we also need to be able to make sure that we meet people where they are. When you look at challenges for the business and the industry and try to navigate through those, we’ve shifted our focus to the member experience through financial education and community engagement and other personalized services. As part of that, we’ve adjusted branch hours and contact center hours to really meet our members where they need us, when they need us. We analyze a lot of data and we look at how people are engaging with our services. That has created an opportunity for us to adjust some hours to better meet those needs. Then there is understanding the importance of financial education. We work to provide free financial education tools and resources that cover things like cost savings, budgeting, investing, credit, and a lot more.
Coupled with the educational resources is the opportunity for people to get personal financial coaching that’s tailored to their needs and what they’re going through financially. That’s been a big focus of ours. More than 41,000 financial fitness assessments have been completed, and the nice thing is that over 5,000 of those were for non-members. So far, we’ve provided over 743 hours of free financial counseling. It’s getting back to our roots and helping members and non-members through the financial journey they are on, because everyone is in a different spot at a different time.
What makes Jacksonville an attractive market?
Jacksonville is a strong market. We’ve got great organizations here. We’ve got Fortune 500 companies that are headquartered here. It continues to grow aggressively. There’s a lot of commitment and a lot of resources being provided to continue to build up downtown Jacksonville. I’m looking out the window right now at the construction being done on the riverfront and the renovation of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ stadium. There are new hotels coming in, and in terms of apartments and condos, there are new residential buildings coming in. There’s a lot being done to continue to bolster Jacksonville and there’s a lot more opportunity. It’s a great city. It’s a city that really supports itself and everyone embraces it. It will continue to grow and in my mind, it’s probably one of the better cities in the state of Florida.
For more information, please visit:
